Summer is officially over. Kids are back in school. The leaves are starting to change. And before too long, we’ll all be breaking out our long sleeve shirts, jeans, and parkas to brave another typically cold Wisconsin fall and winter.
But one thing that remains constant – no matter the season – is figuring out what upcoming films are likely to deliver the biggest bang for your hard-earned dollars. With that in mind, here are five films scheduled to be released in the Milwaukee area this month that based on several criteria – star power, available film trailers and buzz on the street – are the ones to watch this fall.
We’ll highlight additional fall films due to be released in October and November, as well as some early-winter titles in December that we also consider must-sees.
September 2012 Film Must-Sees
10 Years
Starring: Channing Tatum, Chris Pratt, Rosario Dawson, Justin Long, Anthony Mackie, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Kate Mara, Scott Porter, Max Minghella and Ron Livingston
Directed By: Jamie Linden
MPAA Rating: PG-13, for language, alcohol abuse, some sexual material and drug use.
Release Date: Sept. 14, 2012 (limited)
Channing Tatum has had a bang-up year with three distinctly different films (The Vow, 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike) all surpassing expectations, both critically and commercially, that each earned north of $100 million at the domestic box office alone. He and his wife, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, were recipients of the prestigious Peabody Award for Earth Made of Glass, a HBO documentary that detailed previously unknown atrocities that occurred during the 1994 Rwandan genocide in Africa. With 10 Years, his fourth film of 2012, he re-teams with Jamie Linden, who wrote and co-produced his 2010 box office hit Dear John, on this coming of age comedy-drama-romance about a group of longtime friends who discover that despite their pending 10th year high school reunion, many of them haven’t evolved much, if at all, in the years since graduation.
Arbitrage
Starring: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling, Tim Roth, Laetitia Casta and Nate Parker
Directed By: Nicholas Jarecki
MPAA Rating: R. for language, brief violent images and drug use.
Release Date: Sept. 14, 2012
Ripping a page from the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme scandal from a few years back, the financial thriller Arbitrage casts Richard Gere as a big-wig NYC hedge fund magnate who’s on the verge of financial and personal ruin. Susan Sarandon co-stars as his wife, Brit Marling as his daughter, and Tim Roth as the detective hot on his tail. The independently financed film debuted to an appreciative crowd earlier in the year at the Sundance Film Festival where it was acquired by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions for stateside distribution. Gere’s universally acclaimed performance may finally yield the big screen vet his first-ever Oscar nomination a la last year’s Cold War-era set thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy finally did for the criminally underrated Gary Oldham.
The Master
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Laura Dern
Directed By: Paul Thomas Anderson
MPAA Rating: R, for sexual content, graphic nudity and language.
Release Date: Sept. 21, 2012
Is it or is it not a thinly veiled allegory about the controversial religion (or cult, depending on whom you ask) known as Scientology? That’s been the word on the street since news of this being Paul Thomas Anderson’s follow-up to his 2007 masterpiece There Will Be Blood broke. Whether it is or isn’t, The Master is the film that brought Phoenix out of his pseudo-retirement from acting. He plays a troubled Navy vet trying to find a direction in life who is recruited by the charismatic leader (played by Hoffman) of a new religious order called The Cause which is eerily similar in both beliefs and methodology to – you guessed it – Scientology. Adams co-stars as Hoffman’s wife. The Oscar buzz on The Master has been deafening since it debuted earlier this month at the Venice International Film Festival in Italy to universal acclaim, particularly for Hoffman and Phoenix’s performances (both actors were bestowed the festival’s best actor prize for their respective work in the film), while Anderson won the festival’s best director prize. The film would have also claimed the festival’s best picture prize too had it not been for a stipulation preventing any one film from claiming both best picture and best actor/actress citations.
Trouble With the Curve
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake and John Goodman
Directed By: Robert Lorenz
MPAA Rating: PG-13, for language, sexual references, some thematic material and smoking.
Release Date: Sept. 21, 2012
Forgiving his strange appearance at the recent RNC convention, Clint Eastwood is still one of the coolest actors working today, which makes Trouble With the Curve – his first acting assignment since he semi-retired from acting following 2008’s Gran Torino – a must-see. Clint plays an aging (and ailing) baseball scout for the Atlanta Falcons whose usefulness to the team is brought into question right around the time his contract is up for renewal. Adams co-stars as Clint’s estranged, litigating daughter. Timberlake plays a young, inexperienced scout for a rival team that Clint takes under his wing, and Goodman plays Clint’s trusted friend and colleague.
Won’t Back Down
Starring: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Oscar Isaac, Rosie Perez, Holly Hunter, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Ving Rhames, Lance Reddick and Bill Nunn
Directed By: Daniel Barnz
MPAA Rating: PG, for thematic elements and language.
Release Date: Sept. 28, 2012
In Won’t Back Down, Oscar nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal plays an outspoken single mother who teams up with an initially skeptical teacher, played by two-time Oscar nominee Viola Davis, to reform the waning inner-city school both of their children attend in Pittsburgh. Inspired by actual events, if not one event in particular, the trailer positions the film as an amalgamation of previous “taking on the establishment” films such as Norma Rae, Erin Brockovich, Silkwood and North Country. So what do all of those films share in common? All garnered their leading ladies (Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and Charlize Theron, respectively) Oscar nominations with Field and Roberts winning Oscar gold for Norma and Erin, respectively. And, in the case of the three latter films, Oscar nods for supporting players (Albert Finney in Erin, Cher in Silkwood, and Frances McDormand in Country). Oscar buzz surrounding Davis’ performance has been percolating since last spring when the film was originally set to open in theaters.
